Texas Textbook War: Erase America’s Founding Era?
The TEA (Texas Education Association) is considering replacing old textbooks with new ones that, instead of teaching American history, will teach “GLOBAL” history for the purpose of developing “GLOBAL CITIZENS.” across the United States, it’s easy to see how this change could have a huge impact on a national level. At the moment, we only need to worry about Texas because California, having been bankrupt for quite some time, hasn’t bought textbooks for years and may not for the foreseeable future.
Ok, now the real surprise. TEA would also introduce new US history textbooks that exclude all founding years up to 1877—that’s right, the part that teaches about our hero ancestors and how they made us a great nation. That means our children will no longer learn how the Constitution was derived or anything about the history of the Civil War.
As a writer and historian, and better yet, as an American, I am horrified by that idea and cannot imagine our school systems omitting this formative part of our culture and heritage. Don’t you think it’s an important foundation for the education of our children, children who will in all probability one day find themselves serving this nation in some remote country like Afghanistan with a rifle in their hands and people shooting at them? Wouldn’t it help your resolve to know that you are upholding a tradition of standing up for your rights and the rights of others that dates back to the American Revolution?
How did we get here and how will it affect the future? An important loss will be not teaching our next generations the mistakes that were made and that nobody wants to repeat. For example, not all of our history includes examples that you can look back on with pride. Let’s not forget that the reason we fought in the Civil War was to abolish slavery. Don’t we want our children to learn that freedom doesn’t come easily? Not only freedom for all races and all colors, but also freedom of speech and the right to own property. Are we no longer proud of the accomplishments of our founding mothers and fathers? Shouldn’t they know how Betsy Ross made the first flag or that a strong and brave woman named Florence Nightingale made important contributions to the hospital environment? Do we no longer want to present these great Americans as examples and role models for our future generations?
It is as if your parents planned to raise you leaving aside your ancestors and the stories of how they began and ultimately how you got yours. Doesn’t everyone want to know who their parents were? In the future, the new textbooks used across the country may no longer teach our children how America began. This is even more amazing when you consider that the highest grossing movie of all time was Gone with the Wind, a book written about the period in our nation’s history that TEA wants to erase.
Copyright 2010 Gregory David Page